Congregational Church of the Valley
your community Congregational church
Founders’ Day 1983
March 6, 1983 was not the beginning. Although we celebrate it as “Founders’ Day,” the church origins go back much further. Two years earlier, research into the feasibility of a Congregational church in the east valley was conducted. Due to the number of traditional Congregationalists who had escaped colder climes for the Arizona warmth, it was felt a nucleus for a new church could be found. It was.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Phoenix, the Congregational Church of Sun City was flourishing. But it was a long drive in the days before the Loop this-and-that freeways. So, the nucleus sought a means of starting a church in the east valley.
With some consultation with Rev. John Alexander, the pastor of the Sun City church, and Dr. Walter Boring of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches (NACCC), then a visit from a prospective minister, Carl Henning, the groundwork was laid for the first service. On Sunday afternoon, March 6, 1983, Rev. Alexander conducted that first service, assisted by Dr. Boring and Rev. Henning.
March 6, 1983 was not the end of the beginning. The next Sunday, Rev. Henning conducted the service and was called to be the founding pastor. While he and his wife returned to Ohio to sell their house and pack, the nucleus was busy. They wrote the church covenant, bylaws, and government paperwork.
September 11, 1983: the beginning of the unbroken sequence of Sunday morning services started in the chapel at the Cook Christian Training School in Tempe. [And later met in three Chandler schools before moving into our present building.]
March 11, 1984 was Covenant Sunday. Twenty-one became charter members that Sunday afternoon. Rev. Alexander and Dr. Boring participated in the service.
Here ends the beginning. Yet more beginnings have come and many more beginnings will come.
For a more complete record of our first ten years, see The Congregational Church of the Valley, a History 1983-1993 by Grace A. Butman.
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Congregational Church of the Valley
your community Congregational church
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